Kentucky HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in Kentucky?

A Kentucky condominium association can restrict or prohibit short-term rentals through its recorded declaration, and a planned community — a non-condominium HOA — can do so through its recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions, CC&Rs. Which condominium statute supplies the framework turns on whether the condominium was created before or on/after January 1, 2011. Condominiums created on or after that date fall under the Kentucky Condominium Act (KRS 381.9101–381.9207),¹ and condominiums created before it remain under the older Horizontal Property Law (KRS 381.805–381.910), though several Condominium Act provisions reach back to pre-2011 regimes.² Planned communities answer primarily to their CC&Rs and common law, with the Nonprofit Corporation Act (KRS Chapter 273) supplying corporate formalities and the 2023 Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785–381.801) adding a governance floor for communities formed on or after June 29, 2023.³ The Kentucky Condominium Act runs as a condominium statute, not a full common interest ownership act, and it doesn't govern planned communities. Kentucky doesn't preempt local short-term rental regulation, so cities such as Louisville and Lexington regulate the activity directly through registration and permitting.⁹ Those local rules and the transient room tax bind owners in their relationship with the government and stay separate from association authority. The sections below lay out the statutory framework, amendment and grandfathering rules, enforcement mechanics, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The condominium statutes and the CC&R-primary planned-community framework

Kentucky splits condominium governance at a single date. The Kentucky Condominium Act (KRS 381.9101–381.9207) took effect January 1, 2011, and applies to condominiums created on or after that date.¹ It was modeled on the Uniform Condominium Act, and the General Assembly amended it in 2012 through House Bill 433 to align several provisions more closely with the uniform text.¹⁴ Condominiums created before January 1, 2011 remain governed by the Horizontal Property Law (KRS 381.805–381.910), enacted in 1962.² The Condominium Act didn't repeal the older law but made specified provisions apply to pre-2011 regimes, only as to events or circumstances occurring after January 1, 2011, without invalidating existing declaration, bylaw, plat, or plan provisions, KRS 381.9103.¹⁵ The two condominium regimes run distinct and shouldn't get treated as interchangeable; the analysis of any given condominium starts with its creation date.

The Kentucky Condominium Act runs as a condominium-only statute. It's not a common interest ownership act, and it doesn't govern planned communities. Non-condominium HOAs answer primarily to their recorded CC&Rs and Kentucky common law on covenant enforcement, with the Nonprofit Corporation Act (KRS Chapter 273) supplying corporate structure for the great majority of associations that incorporate as nonprofits. In 2023, the General Assembly enacted the Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785–381.801, from Senate Bill 120), Kentucky's first statutory framework for planned communities, covering budgets, records, assessments, liens, and open board meetings; it applies to communities formed on or after June 29, 2023 and doesn't invalidate a provision already in a recorded governing document.^3,16

For both community types, the recorded governing instrument is the source of rental authority. Neither the Condominium Act nor the Horizontal Property Law nor the Planned Community Act specifically addresses short-term or transient rentals, so the declaration or CC&Rs control. That makes a drafting distinction important: authority to restrict long-term leasing — a minimum-lease-term or leasing-cap covenant, say — runs analytically separate from authority to bar short-term or transient use, and a covenant written for one may not clearly reach the other.

2B. Restricting rentals, amendments, and grandfathering

An association adds or strengthens a rental restriction by amending its governing documents, and the threshold depends on the regime. For post-2011 condominiums, the Condominium Act requires that the declaration be amended by owners holding at least 67% of the allocated votes, or any larger majority the declaration specifies, KRS 381.9155.⁶ Pre-2011 condominiums amend under the procedures in their own instruments and the Horizontal Property Law; the Condominium Act permits such an amendment where it would be permitted by the Act, KRS 381.9103.¹⁵ For planned communities subject to the 2023 Act, the declaration may be amended by consent of 80% of all lot owners unless the declaration specifies otherwise, KRS 381.791; communities not subject to the Act amend under their CC&Rs' own amendment clause, with no statutory threshold.⁷

Grandfathering is where operators most often err. The Kentucky Condominium Act, because it's based on the Uniform Condominium Act rather than the 2008 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, doesn't contain the 2008-era owner-protection provision under which a newly adopted rental restriction doesn't bind a non-consenting owner until transfer; no such shield turns up in the Act. Whether a rental restriction adopted by amendment binds an owner who bought before the amendment therefore turns on the governing documents and Kentucky common law, not on a statutory grandfathering rule.⁸ Kentucky doesn't limit an association's authority to restrict rentals by statute; unlike California (Civil Code § 4741) and Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1806.01), no Kentucky provision caps or conditions association rental restrictions. The conservative course for a board assumes that enforceability against a pre-amendment owner will be judged under general covenant law, where Kentucky courts construe restrictions according to their terms and the intent of the parties.⁸

2C. State law, tax, and the local layer

Kentucky has no statewide statute preempting local short-term rental regulation, and recent attempts to create one failed.⁴ STR regulation therefore runs local. Louisville Metro requires each host to register annually with the Office of Planning and, for a unit that isn't the host's primary residence, to obtain a conditional use permit; hosts also register with the Louisville Metro Revenue Commission.⁹ Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government requires a special fees license through the Division of Revenue, renewed annually at $200 for the first unit and $100 per additional unit, plus a zoning compliance permit, and it has adopted density limits on unhosted rentals; unlicensed rentals can draw fines up to $500 per day.¹⁰

Short-term lodging gets taxed at several layers. Kentucky imposes a 1% statewide transient room tax (KRS 142.400) and a 6% state sales tax on the rental of accommodations, and local governments with tourism commissions impose local transient room taxes (KRS 91A.390).⁵ Louisville Metro imposes a total transient room tax of 8.5%.¹⁷ Stays of 30 or more continuous days stay exempt from the transient room tax, which marks the practical line between "transient" lodging and longer tenancies.⁵

The critical point for boards and managers: local regulation governs the owner-to-government relationship and neither grants nor removes association authority. Louisville's ordinance says so directly: its STR rules don't supersede homeowners' association bylaws, covenants, or deed restrictions.⁹ An owner who registers with the city, obtains a permit, and remits the transient room tax may still violate the declaration or CC&Rs, and an owner who satisfies the association's rules may still be operating illegally under local law. The two systems get enforced separately.

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common and most defensible mechanism is a minimum-lease-term restriction — a covenant requiring that no unit be leased for a term shorter than 30 days, or a longer period, say. Because Kentucky has no statewide statutory minimum lease term for associations, the number lives entirely in the governing document, and the board must trace its authority to specific declaration or CC&R language. Rental caps, limiting the number or percentage of units that may be leased at any time, likewise stay a creature of the governing documents; neither the Condominium Act nor the Planned Community Act imposes or forbids a cap, so a cap is valid only if the declaration authorizes it and got adopted through the correct amendment process.⁶ Associations may also impose internal registration, owner-information, and lease-filing requirements — requiring owners to register tenants or file leases with the board, for instance — where the governing documents permit; these are association-facing obligations, distinct from the city registration an owner owes the government.

B. Enforcement

For condominiums, the Kentucky Condominium Act authorizes the association to levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules, but only "after notice and an opportunity to be heard," and it allows recovery of reasonable enforcement costs, including attorney fees, KRS 381.9167(1)(k). This section applies to condominiums created before and after 2011.^11,15 For planned communities, the fining process comes from the CC&Rs and the Planned Community Act framework rather than a fixed statutory notice-and-hearing rule; the governing documents typically require written notice identifying the violation and an opportunity to cure before a fine.

Available remedies run in three tracks. First, fines, subject to the notice-and-hearing requirement for condominiums. Second, injunctive relief, obtained in Circuit Court, to stop an ongoing short-term rental operation. Third, liens: for condominiums, unpaid assessments, and fines and enforcement costs charged under KRS 381.9167, get secured by the association's lien and enforceable as assessments by judicial foreclosure "in like manner as a mortgage," KRS 381.9193; for planned communities, the Act provides a continuing assessment lien, KRS 381.799, where the governing documents authorize it.^12,13 Association enforcement runs independent of local-government enforcement: a city can fine or revoke a permit for the same rental while the association separately pursues covenant enforcement, and neither action resolves the other.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Kentucky's recent legislative activity on short-term rentals has centered on failed attempts to preempt local regulation, not on association authority.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published or unpublished decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Kentucky issued in the past 36 months squarely addresses the enforceability of a covenant against short-term rentals, association authority to restrict rentals, or a rental-restriction amendment. The governing Kentucky authority remains Hensley v. Gadd, 560 S.W.3d 516 (Ky. 2018), in which the Supreme Court of Kentucky held that short-term vacation rental of a residence in a subdivision restricted to residential use — where the owner registered the property as a "hotel" and collected taxes — violated the deed restriction, and that restrictive covenants are enforceable according to their terms unless enforcement is waived.²² Hensley predates the review window but stands as the case a Kentucky court would apply.

One tangentially related in-window decision exists but doesn't concern covenants or association authority: in Airbnb, Inc. v. Kentucky League of Cities, Inc. & Kentucky Travel Industry Association, Inc., 2025-SC-0331 (Ky. June 25, 2026), the Supreme Court of Kentucky held 4-3, on standing grounds, that the Kentucky League of Cities and the Kentucky Travel Industry Association couldn't maintain a declaratory-judgment action over whether Airbnb must collect and remit local transient room taxes, reasoning that the municipal power to tax cannot be delegated to private citizens; it reversed the Court of Appeals without reaching the tax merits.²³ Worth noting only to set it aside as off-point for association authority.

C. Active legislative or local debates

Local density regulation of unhosted short-term rentals remains contested: Lexington-Fayette amended its ordinance in December 2024 to bar a new unhosted rental within 600 feet of another, to block approval where unhosted rentals exceed 2% of housing units within 1,000 feet, and to cut maximum occupancy from 12 to 10 guests; state preemption bills targeting such local rules have been filed in consecutive sessions and may return.²⁴

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Kentucky occupies a middle position among state approaches to short-term rentals and HOAs. It has a modern, Uniform-Condominium-Act-based condominium statute and, since 2023, a Planned Community Act, but that Act works as a governance floor rather than a rental-authority code, so planned-community rental restrictions still rest on the CC&Rs and common law. Kentucky doesn't preempt local short-term rental bans or density rules the way Iowa, Indiana, or Idaho have, and repeated preemption bills have failed; nor does it limit HOA rental authority the way California (Civil Code § 4741) and Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1806.01) do. The result: a declaration-driven system in which the governing documents, not a state statute, decide whether an association can restrict short-term rentals. Local regulation and the transient room tax constrain city governments and owners, not associations. For a multi-state operator entering Kentucky, the practical implication runs structural: expect two condominium regimes split at January 1, 2011, plus a CC&R-primary planned-community regime with a thin 2023 statutory overlay, and read each community's recorded documents before assuming any rental rule.

HOA Weekly's Kentucky Short-Term Rentals coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly, the Kentucky Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, and local governments act. Federal frameworks — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule — also apply to Kentucky associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Kentucky Revised Statutes § 381.9103, Application and construction of KRS 381.9101 to 381.9207 (Kentucky Condominium Act; effective January 1, 2011) ↩
2. Kentucky Revised Statutes § 381.810, Definitions for KRS 381.805 to 381.910 (Horizontal Property Law, created 1962) ↩
3. Kentucky Revised Statutes § 381.786, Planned communities subject to KRS 381.785 to 381.801 (effective June 29, 2023) ↩
4. Kentucky General Assembly, 2025 Regular Session, Senate Bill 61 (bill record and actions) ↩
5. Kentucky Department of Revenue, Transient Room Tax (1% statewide transient room tax, KRS 142.400; local transient room tax, KRS 91A.390; 30-day exemption) ↩
6. Kentucky Revised Statutes § 381.9155, Amendment of declaration (at least 67% of allocated votes, or any larger majority the declaration specifies) ↩
7. 2023 Kentucky Acts Chapter 23 (Senate Bill 120, Planned Community Act), Section 7 (amendment by consent of 80% of owners unless the declaration specifies otherwise), codified at KRS 381.791 ↩
8. Hensley v. Gadd, 560 S.W.3d 516 (Ky. 2018) (restrictive covenants are enforceable according to their terms; Kentucky construes covenants by their plain language and the intent of the parties) ↩
9. Louisville Metro Office of Planning, Short Term Rental Information (annual registration; conditional use permit for non-primary-residence units; STR rules do not supersede HOA bylaws, covenants, or deed restrictions; 2023 ordinance effective September 28, 2023) ↩
10. City of Lexington, Short-Term Rentals: Licensure requirements and permitting (special fees license, $200 first unit / $100 per additional unit; zoning compliance permit) ↩
11. Kentucky Revised Statutes § 381.9167(1)(k), Powers of unit owners' association (levy reasonable fines "after notice and an opportunity to be heard," including recovery of reasonable enforcement costs and attorney fees) ↩
12. Kentucky Revised Statutes § 381.9193, Lien for assessments (collection costs, attorney fees, fines, and interest under KRS 381.9167 secured by the lien and enforceable as assessments; foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage) ↩
13. 2023 Kentucky Acts Chapter 23 (Senate Bill 120, Planned Community Act), continuing lien provisions, codified at KRS 381.799 ↩
14. 2012 Kentucky Acts Chapter 99 (House Bill 433), amending the Kentucky Condominium Act, effective April 11, 2012 ↩
15. 2012 Kentucky Acts Chapter 99 (House Bill 433), Section 1, amending KRS 381.9103 (specified provisions apply to condominiums created before January 1, 2011, only as to events after that date, without invalidating existing declaration/bylaw provisions) ↩
16. Strauss Troy, Guidance for Kentucky Planned Communities Developers (Kentucky Planned Communities statute, KRS 381.785–381.801, took effect June 29, 2023; excludes condominiums) ↩
17. Louisville Metro Revenue Commission, Transient Room Tax (total transient room tax of 8.5%; stays of 30 or more continuous days exempt) ↩
18. Rent Responsibly, Spring 2025 state short-term rental bills to watch (SB 61 status; Senate defeated the bill and it died with the session) ↩
19. Kentucky General Assembly, 2025 Regular Session, SB 61 House Floor Amendment (short-term rental preemption language; preservation of homeowners'-association restrictions) ↩
20. Kentucky General Assembly, 2025 Regular Session, Senate Bill 110 (short-term rental preemption; died in committee); see also 2026 Regular Session, Senate Bill 112, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/sb112.html ↩
21. Kentucky General Assembly, 2024 Regular Session, House Bill 472 (residential planned communities; receivership for failure to maintain infrastructure or common areas; 2024 Acts Chapter 150) ↩
22. Hensley v. Gadd, 560 S.W.3d 516 (Ky. 2018) (short-term rental of residentially restricted property, registered as a "hotel," violated the deed restriction) ↩
23. Airbnb, Inc. v. Kentucky League of Cities, Inc. & Kentucky Travel Industry Association, Inc., 2025-SC-0331 (Ky. June 25, 2026) (declaratory-judgment standing; municipal taxing power not delegable to private citizens) ↩
24. CivicLex, Short-term rental listings have declined in Lexington (December 2024 amendments: 600-foot separation, 2%-of-housing-units-within-1,000-feet limit, and reduction of maximum occupancy from 12 to 10) ↩